Saturday, July 19, 2008

Pizza, Pasta, Pastry

These three Ps are some of my favourite foods, particularly in winter.

Punk-kin Pasta from La Dolce Vegan has become a regular meal in our house, though it takes different variations every time. This time we used rocket (arugula) instead of sausage. And we had it alongside a big old salad full of rocket, three kinds of sprouts, tomato, capsicum, sautéed mushrooms, corn, and avocado dressing.

This is a bad photo of a really good dinner. I made the Classic Broccoli Quiche from the PPK blog. I doubled the recipe, so I had one quiche to bring to an AR meeting/vegan picnic, but I wanted to make sure it worked before bringing it out in public—it worked, quite well. This quiche is really yum, and I highly recommend trying it out. To go with it, Andy made a veggie sauté with potato, eggplant and spinach, which was really good as well.

One night I had to stay at uni until late to help out a friend who was doing a phone interview on ABC Radio National. When I got home, I found an over-stuffed but delicious pizza waiting for me, courtesy of Andy. This was chock full of seitan, pineapple, tomato, capsicum, nutritional yeast and bbq sauce.

This was an odd pairing, but somehow it work. Macaroni and Peas with nut yeast sauce on one side. On the other, veggies sautéed in spicy peanut sauce. They were brought together with some super-good garlic bread.

Inspired by all of the Daring Bakers with their Danish Braids, I made a curried lentil braid, using frozen puff pastry. This was really tasty, although my braid was definitely not as pretty as the ones I saw.

Early next week I'm going out bush for a cultural festival and to take part in an Aboriginal smoking/cleansing ceremony, so you won't be hearing from me for a few days!

23 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Ahh, everything looks so tasty!! Love how your lentil-braid was inspired by the recent Daring Bakers challenge :0D

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I love your three Ps... but I love even more your suggestion for adding more Ss in my post by using the Australian name for chard.

The mac and yeast looks especially tasty.

Anonymous said...

I'm for the mac - boy does that look good. I must make it.

Anonymous said...

Wowie! That curried lentil braid sounds fantastic! Mail me some, will you?! And the pizza looks drool worthy too!! So many beautiful meals!! Have a great weekend!!

Anonymous said...

That all looks really great - especially the quiche!

Great to read that you're trying to get your PhD finished by three years - I don't think I know anyone in my field that has been able to submit before they needed to extend their scholarships for an extra 6 months (and some of us probably need at least another 6 months on top of that!)

Trying To Heal said...

i'm definitely going to have to try that quiche w/ those sides you had! it's like the ideal breakfast!

hopefully i'm going to get to it this weekend!

Little Miss Sunshine said...

Holly Molly! This post shouts out COMFORT FOOD!! :0) YUMMY!!! I can please come and live with you?! Please?!

I love anything pasta ... I <3 CARBS, mmm!! Oh man you paired yours with garlic bread?!! I haven' t had garlic bread for quite a while now .... must make them soon!
By the way, what vegan margarine do you use? I use Nuttelex, is that a good brand?

Oh yea, I saw people blogging about that quiche before - glad that you gave it a thumbs up!!

Oh man, that pizza looks scrumptious!! HOORAY for cheese-less veg pizza!! ;0)

Last but of course not LEAST - your curried lentil braid looks SCRUMPTIOUS!! ZOMG, is there really vegan frozen puff pastry in the market - please tell me you can find them in woolies/coles?!!

Alicia said...

What a nice tasty pizza! full of goodies! Good work Andy! Everything looks so tasty in this post...

Lily on the Road said...

Just catching up...it all looks wonderful!

Have a great time out bush! Can hardly wait to hear all about it!

Erin said...

Those are three very excellent P's. I'd like that plate of mac and peas, another good king of pea :)

AMR said...

I would order the the Danish Braids as an entree, follow with the Punk-kin dish with the Pizza on the side as a main and take the Quiche home :-)
Love the 3P, day or night!
AMR

PS. just not sure on the BBQ sauce.

the little one said...

Everything looks fantastic. I'm looking forward to hearing about the ceremony if it is appropriate to post.

urban vegan said...

Classic comfort food. Looks hearty and warming!

Monika K said...

Theresa,

Here's a link to one of the articles about my friend, Jeremy, who was near Newcastle when he was swept off a rock and into the ocean (his dad, who's mentioned in the article, is like a second father to me):

http://theherald.yourguide.com.au/
news/local/news/general/
dads-sad-pilgrimage/794605.aspx

You just never expect this sort of thing to happen, but life really is short and it's such a great reminder to live each day to the fullest. A few of Jeremy's Aussie friends are here in Alaska visiting because we just had his memorial service last Friday. I really want to come to Australia to see what he saw...

P.S. That pizza looks amazing - especially since it's dinner time and I'm sitting here rather hungry.

Vaala ◪ said...

That's some seriously delicious-looking food there. The quiche looks amazing (well, it all does but it's dinner time and my mouth started watering by the time I reached the quiche picture).

Interesting that Phd starts with a P too (okay, that was truly random but there you go).

Pink Theory said...

Neat! I totally just made mac and cheese with peas too! Your food looks great. I love how you guys always incorporate such a variety of veggies in your meals. I'm going to have to try that quiche recipe.

Hope your cleansing ceremony is going well!

LK Sisters said...

Those lentil braids look really good and filling. They are quite large!

Theresa said...

Thanks everyone for your nice comments!

Cecilia--I use nuttelex too, and I love it. Some people steer clear because of the hydrogenated oil thing, but it's virtually free of transfats so I don't have a problem with it. I usually use the lite or the olive oil varieties. And most of the frozen puff pastry I've seen at cole's and woolie's is vegan. Check to be sure, but most Pampas pastries use vegetable shortening only, and Cole's brand does as well. Same goes for their short crusts, etc.

Bianca said...

Wow! An aboriginal smoking/cleansing ceremony?! Cool! Have fun!

BTW, I love that you call arugala rocket. You Aussies have the coolest words for things!

Also, what is capsicum? I've seen you write about it numerous times, but I've never heard of it.

Sam said...

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Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

damn, you keep being so creative in the kitchen! *Lentil* braid is brilliant, and that pizza doesn't sound weird at all, rather it sounds delicious!

Unknown said...

Oh man, lots of delicious food right there! And those lentil braids look so cool! I've gotta try to do those!

Veggie said...

love the lentil braid idea!